7 Books Our Travel & Lifestyle Editor Is Reading This Month

I’ve just downloaded this on my Kindle after reading lots of good reviews in the papers. Grace Walker’s debut is a dystopian story that tells the story of Laurie, a 65-year-old woman living with Alzheimer’s. She faces the prospect of losing herself until her daughter Amelia enrols them in a groundbreaking ‘merging’ process that literally fuses their minds into one. At The Village, they join other participants – from siblings and partners to fractured families – each with their own reasons for merging. But as the group settles into this seemingly idyllic rehabilitation centre, unsettling questions arise about what they’ve truly signed up for. A timely book, released as brain‑chip technology enters human trials in the real world for the first time…

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK

If you’re after a great holiday read, Emily Henry is always a safe bet. This technically isn’t a new book, but the Netflix adaptation (starring Tom Blyth, Emily Bader, Lukas Gage, Jameela Jamil and more) drops on Friday, so now’s a good time to binge the book before it hits the small screen. It’s a friends‑to‑lovers romance about Poppy and Alex, two opposites who have spent a decade taking annual summer trips together. After a fall-out leaves them estranged, one last holiday offers the chance to mend their friendship – and discover whether it could become something more. The perfect light-hearted read to get you through the January blues.

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK

Last year, many of the books I read were weighty or deeply affecting, including the excellent When The Cranes Fly South by Swedish writer Lisa Ridzén and Flesh by David Szalay, the latter of which was recently awarded the Booker Prize. So, Alice Feeney’s latest novel looks exactly like the kind of escapist thriller I’m after now. My Husband's Wife tells the story of Eden Fox, an artist on the verge of her big break. When she returns home to the house she has recently bought with her husband, her key doesn’t fit the door. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers it instead. And her husband insists that this stranger is his wife. As her story collides with a mysterious woman who claims to have inherited both the house and her life, long‑buried secrets begin to surface and the boundary between truth and deception grows perilously thin.

Releasing on 27th January. 

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK

I binged this book last week and it was the perfect antidote to a fun, albeit slightly chaotic, Christmas break. A gothic thriller set in Fife, Bluff takes readers back to 2013. Joanie is desperate to escape the claustrophobia of the town she’s always called home but her plan is scuppered after meeting an enigmatic couple who offer her a new kind of freedom. Ten years later, her friend Cameron arrives home with one question burning in his mind: whatever happened to Joanie? As he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs.

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK

January calls for novels that feel both comforting and thought‑provoking, and Jessica George’s Love By The Book delivers. Having enjoyed her debut Maame, I was keen to see what came next – and this story of Remy and Simone, two women navigating fractured friendships and unexpected connections, is beautifully observed. Their first encounter in a bookshop is far from instant chemistry but as circumstances keep drawing them back into each other’s orbit, both begin to see they may have stumbled upon exactly what they’ve been missing – if they can find the courage to let their guard down.

Available at AMAZON.CO.UK